Cerca:urgent

On the heels of the success of their very sought-after Edits EP
ALMA & MATER are providing their first full-on solo EP for Ancient
Future Now. And they have an urgent message they like to convey:
PLEASE DON’T INTEND TO LET YOUR INTELLECT DOMINATE YOU, freely
adapted from a quote by the one and only Susan Sontag. And
the music follows suit; no heady over-complication, instead we
get no-nonsense basslines and grooves and marimba melodies that
will surely dominate your feet.On the flip we have ADA
(Pampa, Areal)and HADE for two very different but equally charming
remixes, which perfectly complement each other.

Following their hotly tipped 2018 debut album 'On' - Altin Gün returns with an exhilarating second album. 'Gece' firmly establishes the band as essential interpreters of the Anatolian rock and folk legacy and as a leading voice in the emergent global psych-rock scene. Explosive, funky and transcendent.

Some words from the label:

The world is rarely what it seems. A quick glance doesn't always reveal the full truth. To find that, you need to burrow deeper. Listen to Altin Gün, for example: they sound utterly Turkish, but only one of the Netherlands based band's six members was actually born there. And while their new album, Gece, is absolutely electric, filled with funk-like grooves and explosive psychedelic textures, what they play - by their own estimation - is folk music.

'It really is,' insists band founder and bass player Jasper Verhulst. 'The songs come out of a long tradition. This is music that tries to be a voice for a lot of other people.'

While most of the material here has been a familiar part of Turkish life for many years - some of it associated with the late national icon Neset Ertas - it's definitely never been heard like this before. This music is electric Turkish history, shot through with a heady buzz of 21st century intensity.
Pumping, flowing, a new and leading voice in the emergent global psych scene.

'We do have a weak spot for the music of the late '60s and '70s,' Verhulst admits. 'With all the instruments and effects that arrived then, it was an exciting time. Everything was new, and it still feels fresh. We're not trying to copy it, but these are the sounds we like and we're trying to make them our own.'

And what they create really is theirs. Altin Gün radically reimagine an entire tradition. The electric saz (a three-string Turkish lute) and voice of Erdinç Ecevit (who has Turkish roots) is urgent and immediately distinctive, while keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, and percussion power the surging rhythms and Merve Dasdemir (born and raised in Istanbul) sings with the mesmerizing power of a young Grace Slick. This isn't music that seduces the listener: it demands attention.

Altin Gün - the name translates as 'golden day' - are focused, relentless and absolutely assured in what they do. What is remarkable is the band has only existed for two years and didn't play in public until November 2017; now they have almost 200 shows under their belt. It all grew from Verhulst's obsession with Turkish music. He'd been aware of it for some time but a trip to Istanbul while playing in another band gave him the chance to discover so much more. But Verhulst wasn't content to just listen, he had a vision for what the music could be. And Altin Gün was born.

'For me, finding out about this music is crate digging,' he admits. 'None of it is widely available in the Netherlands. Of course, since our singers are Turkish, they know many of these pieces. All this is part of the country's musical past, their heritage, like 'House of The Rising Sun' is in America.'
As Verhulst delves deeper and deeper into old Turkish music, he's constantly seeking out things that grab his ear.

'I'm listening for something we can change and make into our own. You have to understand that most of these songs have had hundreds of different interpretations over the years. We need something that will make people stop and listen, as if it's the first time they've heard it.'

It's a testament to Altin Gün's work and vision that everything on Gece sounds so cohesive. They bring together music from many different Anatolian sources (the only original is the improvised piece 'Soför Bey') so that it bristles with the power and tightness of a rock band; echoing new textures and radiating a spectrum of vibrant color (ironic, as gece means 'night' in Turkish). It's the sound of a band both committed to its sources and excitedly transforming them. It's the sound of Altin Gün. Incandescent and sweltering.

Creating the band's sound is very much a collaborative process, Verhulst explains.
'Sometimes me or the singer will come in with a demo of our ideas. Sometimes an idea will just come up and we'll work on it together at rehearsals. However we start, it's always finished by the whole band. We can feel very quickly if it's going to work, if this is really our song.'

Just how Altin Gün can collectively spark and burn is evident in the YouTube concert video they made for the legendary Seattle radio station KEXP. In just under 20 minutes they set out their irresistible manifesto for an electrified, contemporary Turkish folk rock. It's utterly compelling. And with around 800,000 views, it has helped make them known around the world.

'It certainly got us a lot of attention,' Verhulst agrees. 'I think a lot of that interest originally came from Turkey, plenty of people there shared it.'

That might be how it began, but it's not the whole tale. The waves have spread far beyond the Bosphorus. What started out as a deep passion for Turkish folk and psychedelia has taken on a resonance that now travels widely. The band has played all over Europe, has ventured to Turkey and Australia and will soon bring their music to North America for the first time.

'Not a lot of other bands are doing what we do,' he says, 'playing songs in that style and seeing folk music in the same way.'

Daniel Avery broadens the exquisite sonic universe established on last year's critically-acclaimed sophomore LP Song For Alpha, presenting the collected B-sides & Remixes. Showcasing cuts from the album's writing and recording process, as well, Avery also invites a number of his contemporaries and some of the most vital underground producers in the world to rework his original material, with transformative results.

The frosty melancholy of Citizen // Nowhere is reworked by London producer Manni Dee into something altogether monstrous. Introducing itself with a kick drum powerful enough to level a warehouse, and only getting more urgent from there forward, Dee's remix blends a knowing rave glint in the eye with a nonetheless uncompromising stance.

The Copenhagen-via-Moscow producer Anastasia Kristensen immediately justifies her status as a rapidly rising talent on the scene, locking into a delicate yet no less powerful groove for her sparkling remix of Glitter. Seamlessly heightening the almost meditative qualities of Avery's original, she weaves a blissful rhythmic trip, taking in razor-sharp percussions and spectral dub techno.

A longstanding fixture on the Midwest US rave scene, Patrick Russell applies his typical grit to 'Song For Alpha's firmly dancefloor focused centrepiece, Diminuendo. In subtly shifting the focus to the track's passages of overwhelming feedback, he sculpts a black hole of snarling electro and piston-like breaks, sure to prove an inviting wormhole to those willing to surrender further, deeper and darker.

For the first release of 2019, the ever-consistent Play It Say It turns to an established producer who is launching an anonymous new alias. The music speaks of someone with a love of raw, analogue sounding house and techno with machine made soul.

First out of the blocks is the brilliant and adventuring 'Don't Believe The Hype'. Built around expertly programmed drums that remain restless throughout, it has dynamic synths and acid twitches, moments of serenity and chord-based optimism all stitched in along the way. It's the sort of expansive, cinematic track that envelops the whole club and oozes class and production know how.

On the flip, 'One Night Forever' is a totally different but equally unique proposition: it has fizzing synth lines bringing a dystopian feel to dark bass and razor sharp hi hats. Broken drums amp up the energy levels, and the warped synths pump the party. This is a busy, urgent cut of fantastically realised future music that brings plenty of freshness to the dance floor.

Whoever this artist is, they have a genuinely unique perspective and more than enough skills to realise their bold and brave new ideas.

Techno Thriller joins the Unknown Precept fam with a brand new mini-album. The first following the release of their eponymous full-length album a couple of months ago. Based in Brussels, although now relocating themselves in Marseille, France, the four-handed formation has steadily been crafting cybernated Gothic music over the past years. Recorded a few months back while drawing its inspiration from dark dungeons and occult folklore, not without evocative titles, Enfant de Sodome feels as muscular and thrilling as their live performances usually imply. Compelling murky synthpunk and industrial machinery colliding in fervor and howls. Free falling tumultuous bass lines lacerated by ominous muffled groans. Bone-bending primitive techno music catapulted over the walls in the most urgent fashion. At the end, it very much feels like trying to dance on some sort of cryptic electronic body music in a heavy chain-mail.

ndio was a short lived but influential trio of John Beltran, Sam McQueen and Seth Taylor. They released an album and three EPs of hi tech ambient techno on Derrick May's Transmat and the Rhythmic Tech label between 1999 and 2010. Here, three tracks from their self titled 2003 EP and one that was released on Styrax get put together, remastered and recut for the next Delsin reissue. Opener 'Winter Long' is classy techno cut that looks into the future. A symphony or gorgeous strings lights up the backdrop as scintillating drums dance and shimmery in the foreground. A Detroit sense of melody adds colour and ensures utter timelessness. 'Blue Fantasy' is another track that show off the power of machines to make music that touches your soul with its gorgeous strong stabs and masterful drum programming, and 'Inca' then slips more into a house groove, with busy, shuffling drums driving along beneath acidic twitches and broad, heavenly pads. It's slick, urgent and compelling and 'Nolita' closes things with more delicate dancing machines, rueful synth work and rubber bass. It's archetypal Detroit techno that sounds as good and forward facing now as it ever did.

R+R=NOW is a collective of like-minded boundary-breakers featuring Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Derrick Hodge, Taylor McFerrin & Justin Tyson. The 'R+R' in the band's name stands for Reflect+Respond, and was inspired by Nina Simone who said an artist's duty is to reflect the times.
With Collagically Speaking the band presents an urgent musical hybrid that is distinctly of the now. As Glasper says, R+R=NOW tells 'our story from our point of view... It's a very honest, fluid sound that rings of hip-hop, EDM, jazz, at times - hell - reggae... a bunch of cats that respect each other so much that we always pass the ball.' The album features guest spots by Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Stalley, Amanda Seales, Amber Navran, Goapele, Jahi Sundance and Yasiin bey.

The neon lights that decorate a dive bar's window cast a vivid reflection in rainwater on the pavement outside, as steam rises from deep beneath the ground. A slow pan across the scene, past alleys cast in shadow, twilit corners & glass doorways streaked with the mist of humid bodies fuming inside: the camera catches the denizens of an unnamed city, studying faces heavy with secrets too sad to bear. Cut to the motorway. Sleek cars barrel through the night. Sirens moan. Engines rev. You're behind the wheel, over the edge as the credits roll.

This film does not exist — but the soundtrack does. Symmetry is Johnny Jewel & Nat Walker, & Themes For an Imaginary Film is their two-hour cinematic opus pokus, a sprawling score for a movie that screens only in your mind. A 'conceptual tangent between Glass Candy, Chromatics, Mirage, & Desire's more abstract sides,' as Jewel himself describes the project, Symmetry is a vigorous, electric, restless exploration of ideas on the bleeding edge of instrumental sound. Analog synthesizers roll and crest, drums collide, keys cascade clear & crystalline. These themes evoke the phantasmic images that inspired them: urgent and ethereal, sinister & romantic. It's a neo-noir epic of pink fog & femme fatales hidden behind rain drenched windshields after dark.

Produced By Johnny Jewel & Nat Walker

Matthew Dear is a shapeshifter, oscillating seamlessly between DJ, dance-music producer, and experimental pop auteur. He is a founding artist on both Ghostly International and its danceoor offshoot, Spectral Sound. He writes, produces, and mixes all of his work. He straddles multiple musical worlds and belongs to none, now nearly 20 years into his kaleidoscopic career, with ve albums and two dozen EPs plus millions of miles in the rearview of his biography.

Bunny is the name of Matthew Dear's fth album. His rst since 2012, it bounces into plain sight preceded by two slyly different singles in 2017: the moody, urgent "Modanil Blues' and the buoyant, blithe, Tegan and Sara-featuring 'Bad Ones.' Bunny follows both modes, among others, parading down a rabbit hole of unhinged phrasings, dreams, and interludes. It saunters in the shadows; it stands brightly in the moonlight. Bunny is a dual vision of avant-pop; an artistic reckoning from a 21st-century polymath; persona splintered, paradox paraphrased, a riddle rendered.

After more than a decade of deep, expansive productions on labels such as Detroit Underground and CPU, Annie Hall arrives on MUSAR for a record typically rich in texture and understated grooves.

Opening track 'Linium' immediately seduces listeners with a complex drum pattern that somehow feels spacious, subtly twisting and turning its way around Hall's analogue world. Dutch artist Mattheis maintains this understated feel but adds a soft, compelling kick in response on his suspenseful remix of 'Lavandula'. The original, moodier version of this cut the follows to open the B side, gradually erupting around a killer distorted bassline. The EP continues to hit a more urgent note with the tense machinations of 'Silene', where dense layers of stuttering, frenetic drums interweave with Hall's trademark, melancholy keys. The record concludes on a weightless, transcendent note with 'Santolina', taking each visceral element featured thus far and slowing each down, with affecting results.

Indebted to vintage electro and IDM, Hall's music is no throwback, always looking forward and moving dancefloors in the most unexpected ways.



DJ FEEDBACK

Early support from



Michael Mayer (Kompakt) : Nice vibes from Mattheis... will play for sure!

James Zabiela (Born Electric) : Linium is a nice one, thanks.

Arnaud Le Texier (Cocoon / Chronicle) : Nice music. Thx!

Marcel Dettmann (Ostgut Ton/MDR) : Thx!

Carl Craig (Planet E) : Thx!

Gonno (Beats In Space Records / Endless Flight) : I like Mattheis' :)

Thomas Hessler (Index Marcel Fengler) : Nice one! Thank you!

Slam (Soma) : Thanx

Âme (Innervisions) : Thanks

Blasha & Allatt (Meat Free / Manchester) : Amazing!

EREZ / John Byrun : A superb EP

Tom Lye (Melodic Distraction - Liverpool) : Big fan of the whole EP. Strong, building electro with different moods. Essential!

Afrodeutsche (NTS / LuckyMe / Skam) : Glitchy melodica... Right up my Strasse...

DJ Shiva / Noncompliant (Valence / Detroit Underground) : Stellar music here. Moving beyond "DJ music", this is just really fantastic to listen to in headphones. Gorgeous stuff.

Lonya (Asymmetric Recordings) : Great stuff here!

Nori (Posivision) : Cool work.

Cinnaman (Rush Hour / Naked Naked) : Lavandula and Santolina are my favorites! thanks

Dj Windows XP (E-Beamz) : Dope E.P. Will play Lavandula.

Ambivalent/LA-4A (Delft/Cocoon/Ovum) I'm a huge fan of Annie Hall and Mattheis!!! This is a FANTASTIC release!! One of my favorites of recent months just on first listen!!

Benoit C (Tsugi) : Linium for me

Ian Blevins (ESP Institute / Sulk Magic) : Linium and another bit of top work from Mattheis. Santolina is pushing my buttons too. Aphexy vibes.

Joe Europe (Ransom Note) : Very nice!

Azterisco: Very interesting record. Nice remix!

Oded Peled : What a fantastic release! Was hard to choose a favourite between Linium and the Mattheis Remix of Lavandula. Both will come in handy in my sets. ....Thanx a lot and keep em coming.

Naduve (Cocktail d'Amore / Disco Halal) : Both A1 and A2 are great!..Thanks.

Anastasia Kristensen (Nous) : I dig this a lot, it's a crazy well produced record.

Demia E.Clash (Darknet) : Such a good ep-.i love them all,quality production yess.

Pedro Martins (Karakter Records) : Nice EP overall. Linium, Silene, and Santolina are my favorites. Thank you so much!

Xinobi (Discotexas) : Great record. I'm specially enchanted by the original version o Lavandula. Congratulations.

Scan Mode (DJ Mag Spain) : Lavandula in both mixes for me

John Osborn (TANSTAAFL) : Can't pick a fav. it is all Devine. thank you.

Madloch (Sound Avenue) : Nice EP, Linium & Lavandula original are my favs, thanks.

DVS NME (Transient Force) : The standout track is Lavandula.

Boredom, anxiety, pain killers and frustration make a heady mix for both reflection and action. For three weeks I stared out of the window of the tower block onto the tall brick towers of the old asylum chimneys. The past was a strange land suddenly out of reach, the present confusing and claustrophobic, the future something I could only visualise and idolise.

From the balmy Autumn day of my release a light was switched on, buzzing urgently like a neon street light on my path. Life took on new vigour and meaning. Pleasures starkly illuminated, annoyances inconsequential. Old work was re-examined and appreciated. Machines were treasured and connected. My basement filled with ever greater warmth and excitement.

The toy towns of our inner minds are constructed of a million tiny building blocks of experience. But there's a freedom that comes from realising what might have been. Peace in reflection, untethered from the everyday distraction and I take pleasure in the hum drum. Unhampered by trends, untethered to a scene, stripped back to essential carnal influences and desires. Who are we but the sum of our experience.

'Everything Is Quite Now' meanders through a reimagined landscape of personal history, releasing musical fragments to dri* amongst soaring treetops, hollowed lakes and labyrinthine concrete structures, liberated from genre and form - alive at last. In these great expanses, light and dark are presented not as polar opposites, but as a limitless, unified whole.

References to EBM and industrial techno manifest within the sporadic percussive framework whilst gauzy ambient backdrops form an entire world of their own, constructed from the gentle hiss of a looping tape, the booming caverns of a muffled kick, the vivid distortions of a crystalline synth. In the depths of a misty forest, warmth permeates, absorbing inside it all of the darkness, pain, romance and beauty from before.

Prequel Tapes is a work of deep synthesis. Fragments of melody and memory orchestrated into densely layered tapestries; a deeply emotional study on a life characterised by a shi*ing relationship to electronics. The pieces serve as a chronology of desire and reflection, reconciling a nascent passion for industrial music with a history in the club. Oscillating between utopian to claustrophobic, the evolving synth work, deep techno atmosphere and traces of clangorous energy of early European ambient and industrial tell a distinctly German tale, forged between the forest and the autobahn.

Everything is quite now. What else can it be.

David Mayer's career and background is marked by a desire to keep moving and experiencing new perspectives. Having finally settled in Berlin, the German DJ and producer has built up an enviously diverse back catalogue on labels such as Connected Frontline, Objektivity, Gruuv, Audiomatique and Keinemusik. With his first release on Acid Pauli and Nico Stojan's Ouie label, Mayer brings his trademark groove to the fore once more.

'The Call' is a mid tempo chugger built around a kick, clap and 808 blip, before a more organic groove develops. The slowed down chants and wigged out synth line take the vibe into afro cosmic territory, without losing the original energy.

'Sooner' is a little more urgent - a crisp, forward leaning rhythm and a deep, subby bass lead the way, before another frazzled synthesiser takes us on a melodic walkabout.

Den Hague's Dazion (who previously released a 12" on MFM's Second Circle imprint), with a 2 tracker for Safe Trip.
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Label say:

''URGENT: THE SAFE TRIP ORGANISATION HAS TAKEN TO THE WATER IN A BID TO SPREAD THEIR CODED MUSICAL MESSAGES FAR AND WIDE. THEY HAVE RECRUITED A YOING OPERATIVE KNOWN AS DAZION, A KEEN WINDSURFER, TO DEVELOP A METHOD OF BROADCASTING THEIR ADDICTIVE AND MIND-ALTERING MUSICAL MISSIVES WHEREVER THERE IS A SUITABLE BODY OF WATER.

OUR OPERATIVES TRACKED DAZION TO A REMOTE SPOT ON THE DUTCH COAST, WHERE HE WAS SPOTTED TRIALLING THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY WITH HIS FAVOURED F2 DRAGON BOARD. AS HE RODE THE CHOPPY WAVES, WE WERE ABLE RECORD THE RHYTHMICAL ELECTRONIC MUSIC BROADCASTING FROM WITHIN THE BROAD. THIS MUSIC FEATURED THE KIND OF TRIBALISTIC, DELAY-LADEN DRUMS, SWELLING ELECTRONICS AND EXOTIC MELODIC REFRAINS THAT ARE KNOWN TO INSPIRE FRENZIED DANCING IN MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC. WE HAVE CHRISTENED THE RECORDING DRAGON WAVE'.

WE LATER TRACKED DAZION TO A LIGHT INDUSTRIAL UNIT ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF AMSTERDAM. THERE HE CONTINUED TO TINKER WITH THE TECHNOLOGY, TESTING IT OUT BY BROADCASTING ANOTHER MUSICAL COMPOSITION. THIS WAS MORE POIGNANT AND MELANCHOLIC IN TONE, UTILISING SPAACEY ELECTRONIC MELODIES, GENTLY BOBBING CHORDS, HEART-ACHING GUITAR FLOURISHES AND A TOUGH BUT BROKEN RHYTHM TRACK. THE RECORDING - CODE NAME VX LTD' - HAD A HUGE IMPACT ON US EMOTIONALLY AND EVEN REDUCED ONE OPERATIVE TO TEARS.''

For its seventh offering, Sol Power Sound taps into the pulse of the French Antilles for Tambours de Martinique, a blistering EP of original and remixed versions of rare, drum-centric dance floor workouts. Licensed directly from the legendary Martiniquan label Hibiscus Records, the EP features cuts by Eugène Mona and Max Ransay, two of Martinique's most storied musicians. With reworks by Spanish DJ and producer Kiko Navarro and the Sol Power All-Stars, this one will be in the record bags of discerning DJs all summer long.

The A side features 'Lizo' by Eugène Mona, an essential figure in the folkloric music of Martinique based on the bamboo flute, bèlè drums, and the island's specific variant of Antillean creole. Lizo was originally released in 1990 on Mona's Blanc Mangé Blan Manjé LP and is anchored by frenetic percussion, a driving bassline, and house-evocative key stabs. Kiko Navarro's remix takes an already dynamic cut to deep Afro-space with thumping drums and a bubbling synth-bass groove that will put dancers through their paces.

With its powerful combo of urgent brass and ensemble vocals, Max Ransay's 1988 recording of the traditional Martiniquan folk song 'Ti Kanno' fills the B-side. 'Ti Kanno' was previously recorded by Ti Émile, Ransay and Mona's legendary forebear. Full of surprises, Ransay's version is a sonic melting pot of hand percussion, horns, unexpected synth lines, and bass. The Sol Power All-Stars edit fills out the low-end thump and teases out the groove for maximum impact.

Haiku's Raw Waxes label is delighted to welcome the famously unconventional Stanislav Tolkachev with a new track EP of experimental techno and IDM sounds. Entitled Champions' Breakfast and with brilliant artwork from German Benedikt Rugar, the releases features six cuts, one of which is a previously digital-only track landing here on vinyl for the very first time.

Haiku has long been a fan of Ukrainian Tolkachev having previously collaborated on a remix for the label, while Tolkachev has also released on Haiku's other label Inkblots. This new EP is one that not only shows off the label's willingness to take risks and put out diverse and interesting electronic music, but also one that proves Tolkachev is a truly unique artist with his own musical voice. He has been that way for more than a decade now, and has put out three long players as well as countless EPs that get heavy support from the tastemakers of the day. This latest offering contains his take on the essentialness of groove, enriched by his use of atonality, dissonance and acid-not-acid textures, all in a minimal style.

The deep 'Shady' kicks things off with spangled synth lines and eerie pads off in the distance. It's a lonely and insular piece with kinked rhythms that keep you locked. The excellent 'The Main Thing Is To Survive' is then less constrained, with kicks that rock back and forth as off kilter synth lines warp and wrap around each other in mind melting and tripped out fashion. Switching up the mood with ease, 'Fuck This Guy' is a dark and musty passage of humid ambient techno with static electricity buzzing about over smeared pads that are filled with menace, then the curious 'Hair In My Mouth' is about blurting, busted frequencies, loose and scattered drums and glassy melodies. It's a mangled and mashed up track that sounds like little else. 'Negative Space' is horror soundtrack techno with urgent, driving drums and nervy sound design that keeps you on edge, and closer 'Self Destruction' is built on broken, bristling beats. A rhythm slowly emerges from the haze and it is one that is physical and restless and sure to make a big impact in the club.

This is a varied and vital EP that oozes essential electronic invention.

Growing up in Jamaica, young Rowland Abrahams loved dancing to James Brown so much that he earnt himself the nickname 'Papas' Got'. He later moved to Paris and in 1979 more or less single-handedly recorded the 'I Wanna Love' LP on the RGR label. Admittedly not an album with a heavy yield, the only pearl being the title track which Rocafort Records are releasing as a 12" with an exclusive Al Kent edit on the B side.

No rocket science involved here, just pure killer afro-disco-funk groove from start to finish.Urgent funky guitar riffs, thumping drums and a strong hint of late 70s euro-disco fueled by the slightly unintelligible lyrics delivered with a Frenchie patois twist

One of the most unique, ambitious and experimental game soundtracks ever made. Now on vinyl for the very first time.

Similar to the task of condensing Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima's abundance of ideas into a Mega Drive cartridge in 1994, it feels impossible to convey the influences, technical achievements and sheer ambition of their masterpiece into a single paragraph today. By combining automatic composition methods, custom programming languages and a complete sense of artistic freedom, Koshiro and Kawashima transcended their medium and created something so incomparable that it's hard to believe it came from any games console, let alone a 16bit one. Streets of Rage 3 is urgent, demanding and a complete rejection of the notion that video game music is either pedestrian or predictable. We are honoured to be releasing it.

Streets of Rage 3 is presented as a double LP in a heavyweight single pocket sleeve, with accompanying lithographic print featuring artwork from the SEGA archives in Japan. The audio was sourced from original hardware and carefully remastered in collaboration with Yuzo Koshiro, who also supplied exclusive liner notes for this release. On 180g translucent orange vinyl.

The Shadows is the new album from Leeds-based six-piece Tomorrow We Sail. Building on their debut release For Those Who Caught the Sun in Flight (Gizeh, 2014) over the course of three years, this new work combines perfectly the soaring atmospherics, gorgeously intertwined vocal harmonies and dramatic shifts in tone and dynamics that have come to characterise Tomorrow We Sail's sound. Yet, there is a new sense of urgency here. Very much an album of its time, The Shadows draws upon the same sense of connection to both past and present that defined its precursor but features storytelling that's even more defiant and deeply personal.
Like its predecessor, the record features seven songs but from the chiming guitars of opening track Side By Side it is clear that the stately pace of For Those Who Caught the Sun in Flight has made way for a far more dynamic and driving energy; perhaps best captured in the righteous anger of The Ghost of John Maynard Keynes. Tomorrow We Sail still invoke a keen sense of measured grace in their songwriting - from the sweeping, elegiac title track, through to the sparse, restrained, yet haunting beauty of Winifred and To Sleep. Urgent, yet assured, The Shadows demands your attention.

Khalab has arrived OntheCorner with 'Zaire'.
'Zaire' is the beginning of a new narrative for the artist. In this first chapter Khalab creates urgent compositions with layers of sound from the past, present and future. 'Zaire' is underpinned by an intensely pounding heart of other-worldly percussion. The collaged loops frenetically jab in syncopation breaking off when the inherent swing casts its discrete groove to summon the dance. Unrelenting waves of synthlines, basslines and rhythm find harmony amongst the melodic chants and distortion.
Already making Gilles Peterson's 'All Winners' list on BBC 6 Music'Zaire' is a breathtaking nucleus for airwaves, dancefloors and, any digital devices masquerading as abeatbox. The tracks 'Aeh' and 'Night in the Jungle' are the vessel from which the heat of 'Zaire' steams. DJ Khalab has departed and with 'Zaire' Khalab has arrived On the Corner.
The two remixes on this EP offer magnified oppositions to the friction that Khalab seamlessly stiches into his tapestries of sound. The bass frequencies that Medlarbounces across his electro dirge, taking day into night, contrasts with the harmony and light of Will LV's journeying remix that drives through the troposphere.
'Zaire' is a prelude of the forthcoming 'Black Noise 2084' and the freeing of a narrative shackled in chains for centuries. Phrases of historic recordings collaged with future electronics and the analogue depth and artistic voices of the present makes this a ground breaking work of future music. The archive recordings bare a stark reminder of the need to face the barbaric recesses of modern human history. The many voices of Khalab's 'Black Noise 2084' are coming to be heard.

As Weekend Circuit approach their 20th release, Argentinian duo YYYY return for their second full length EP on the label to celebrate this benchmark.

The YYYY modus operandi is already familiar to the initiated - expressive, raw techno experimentalism from the outer reaches. 'Carry This Blood' is a collection of 4 moods and sounds, carved out with emotion soaked ambience, synapse flaring distortion and machine fracturing rhythms.

'Repent', as the title suggests, takes no prisoners, leaving no survivors in it's wake, it is a glimpse into a tear in the time-space continuum where chaos rules. 'Hands Towards The Giver' is epic, glacial, spacial widescreen techno. Dramatic and urgent, the soundtrack to a doomed planet collapsing from within.

'Carry This Blood' bestows an eerie, cold feeling. An atmosphere of regret and loss hangs over it like a thick fog on a hillside, punctuated only by a heartbeat mimicking kick drum offering a human touch. 'Of Thrones And Comfort' snaps us out of the haze, the fog clears and we are faced with the frenzied electronics and thundering kick drum of this most sinister of tracks.

Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin.

Hana's first and self-titled LP was recorded in Autumn 2010 at Facta non Verba and consists out of 5 tracks which are techno oriented with disposal of experimental and abstract elements.

Reviews

OMG Vinyl
Hana s S/T LP is easily the best promo records we ve gotten in months. This Greek duo has somehow, almost entirely below the radar, released one of the most exciting electronic records of 2011. Their wobbly brand of techno sometimes chugs ahead at full-speed, other times easing back into a wider waver, almost resembling some weird, warped IDM. I will be shocked if this record doesn t get wider appreciation very soon. Whether that happens or not, we fully recommend it, track one down.

Cyclic Defrost by Oliver Laing
Granny Records duo Hana come correct with their first album, offering a refreshing take on techno and IDM variants in the vein of Jan Jelinek, Raime, Actress and hints of the mighty Chain Reaction label. Mastered at Berlin s Dubplates and Mastering by none other than Rashad Becker, a name that often appears in the run-out groove of artists who inhabit a curiously funky techno-not-techno netherworld Hana s debut self-titled release grows in stature and listening enjoyment with every spin. With a sense of fun and adventure inhabiting the grooves, Hana (who are also part of label-mates, Good Luck Mr Gorsky), explore experimental timbres and ghostly vocalisations with a lightness of touch that belies their recording credentials.

Starting off with an abstract, Clicks and Cuts style intro, Liv slowly finds the sweet spot between mutant Detroit electro funk, a hint of the indie/dance territory of Matthew Dear and the abstract, yet rhythmic 12 releases on the Beatservice label, by Norwegian duo Information from the mid 90s. Obermaier implies the groove to begin with, until a wrong-footed man-with-two-left-feet rhythm leads into minimal acidic flourishes. Album opener SM heads in a Ricardo Villalobos vs. Nonplace Urban Field direction, as the lopsided rhythm and sepulchral vocals add a haunted edge to proceedings. CR80 uses beautifully syncopated live drums and urgent female vocals, and adds a driving, belligerent synth riff falling somewhere in between DMZ and Gary Numan. Echoic, boingy sounds threaten to derail the beat, but somehow it manages to maintain, reminding me of Shed and A Made Up Sound; more in overall feel than in the specific sounds. For those that enjoy abstract electronics that work just as well on headphones as on the dance floor, Greece s Hana are a duo to watch.

Textura
Hana's self-titled debut album arrives saddled with a (literally) cheeky front cover one would more associate with a 70s band like Wild Cherry than a Greece-based techno outfit formed in Thessaloniki last summer. Recorded in fall 2010 at Facta non Verba, the five-cut release finds Good Luck Mr Gorsky members Thanasis Papadopoulos and Thanos Bantis hunkered down in their chemical lab concocting formulae to go along with their material's stripped-down techno beats. Using analogue synths, samplers, and sequencers, the duo brings a decidely experimental edge to their productions, sprinkling as they do liberal doses of burble and flutter over bass-heavy techno rhythms.
The opening track, Sm, sets the scene with a heavy low-end pulse thudding alongside a steady kick drum and joined by acidy synths and percussive effects that suggest a lighter being repeatedly flicked open. On a slightly more aggressive tip, the B-side's Cr80 adds truncated vocal yelps to its bleepy, elephantine throb. A dubby dimension emerges in the track, too, when echoing waves drift repeatedly across the huge bass that slithers across the track's underbelly. The album's most elaborate track comes last. Liv opens beatlessly with flickering shudders and what could pass for the amplified workings of an ant community but then progressively fills in the dots with an insistent beat pattern, voice fragments, and even the demented meander of accordion playing. Though Hana hardly rewrites the techno guidebook on the release, it's nevertheless a pleasurable listen, in part due to the multi-dimensional experience provided by the vinyl format and the always superb mastering work done by Rashad Becker at Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering.

We started with the principle - the cosmic idea that we were taught by our father from a very young age - that the stars and planets make a sound, that deep in outer space there is audible harmony.'With its cathedral-like, richly resonant acoustics, the new HBE album is a brilliant expression of this interplanetary principle. The album is by turns urgent and contemplative, funky and reflective, varied in its textures, but entirely of one piece. Underpinned by concepts of our earth's place in the cosmos, held in place by meditation, swirling with notions of history, science, theology, ancestry, there is a rich conceptual brew here. But always, what talks loudest is the music. The album rings with what back in the 1950s the jazz critic Whitney Balliet called the sound of surprise'. At a time when the phrase Spiritual Jazz threatens in some quarters to become a tired cliche, this is a record that makes you believe again in the genre's validity.

Talking to Cid, one of the Ensemble's two trombonists, one phrase recurs: back to the beginning'. We wanted to go back to the beginning, when we were kids, real young, and our father would wake us up at 5 AM to practice for two hours before breakfast.' One outcome - initially unplanned but subsequently embraced - is that unlike their two previous albums on Honest Jon's, this is an album without a drummer. When we started, as Wolf Pack, just brothers on the street with our horns, there wasn't a kit in sight.' Book Of Sound retains plenty of rhythmic heft, but the absence of a drummer opens up space for a notably varied instrumental palette. Acoustic guitar, piccolo, synthesiser, alto sax - none of them typical HBE Instruments - all have their place on the album. Most striking perhaps are the vocal lines that thread through the album and give it a palpable warmth. In Wolf Pack, we rapped and played, this time we took it a step further.'

Sessions were recorded in Brooklyn and Chicago, and brilliantly mixed at Abel Garibaldi's studio in the Loop ( Abel was like a musician on this record'), and it's the Hypnotic's hometown that permeates. For Cid this is a deeply Chicago record: it's got the vibe of the lake, the vibe of the prairies opening up to the west'. It also has the vibe of those Sun Ra Arkestra albums recorded in Chicago in the 1950s, and - of course - the Phil Cohran albums from the 1960s.

It's Phil Cohran (the father of all seven members of the Ensemble and their first teacher, and not just in music) who is the album's guiding spirit. For Cid it's a major regret that, in the months before their father's death early in 2017, Phil was not well enough to play on the album. He loved the whole idea, and we had the perfect place for his zither'. But Book Of Sound is a magnificent testament to their Cohran legacy. You know, it's tough trying to satisfy everybody with our music. It's hard enough satisfying ourselves, let alone the jazz scene, the hip hop guys, what have you. With this album we just dropped all that as a consideration, and tuned into deeper principles.'

Franco Battiato is often heralded as Italy's answer to Brian Eno. A quizzical composer/lyricist, Battiato turned pop music upside down in the early '70s with three classic LPs - Fetus, Pollution and Sulle Corde Di Aries - that formed a confluence of avant-folk sensibilities and analog electronics.

Pollution from 1972 is the captivating follow-up to Fetus. Like its predecessor, the album features Baroque textures, motorik rhythms, weird tape effects and Battiato's perfectly oblique vocals. Upon hearing Pollution, Frank Zappa joyfully proclaimed it "genius."

While Battiato's core group of collaborators remains largely the same as on his debut, this phenomenal band (joined by an eighteen-year-old Roberto Cacciapaglia on keys) appears even more in the foreground on Pollution. Out of the Ash Ra Tempel-like riffs and urgent guitar strumming emerge hypnotic grooves and cinematic flourishes, suggesting a futuristic meeting point between Stereolab and Ennio Morricone.

Dedicated to the Centro Internazionale Studi Magnetici, Pollution touches on themes of environmental catastrophe. Futurist allusions seep in through eccentric lyrics (at times sung backwards) about hydraulics, magnetic fields, etc., yet listeners don't need to speak the artist's language to grasp his melancholy vision. With Pollution, Battiato solidifies not only his cult figure status, but also many of his forward-thinking ideas on rock 'n' roll.

Superior Viaduct is honored to present the first-time domestic release of Pollution on vinyl. Reproducing the original gatefold jacket, this reissue is part of an archival series that chronicles Franco Battiato's masterful body of work from 1971 to 1978.

Four Thirty Two, the new record label directed and curated by Richy Ahmed, reveals its second release this Spring with a fantastic new single from Luca Cazal. Out on vinyl & digital in April, 'Be Alone' is backed with collaboration with Italian producer, Andrea Fiorito.
Cazal has previously released music on Crosstown Rebels, Classic Music Company and his own See Double label, and once again displays his house music credentials on this Four Thirty Two release.
His understanding of club music runs deep; knowing what makes a dancefloor tick is an essential skill for any producer, and Cazal's DJ residency at the Paradise DC10 club nights and regular gigs at Circoloco keep him firmly in tune and adept at carving out modern and fresh party moments.
'Be Alone' is an inspiriting, rolling house track that builds steadily over its tenure. A filtered vocal hook unfurls over tension building strings and nimble keys, the hi-hats assuredly rattling over rolling snare fills and with the energy levels never dropping, Cazal serves up a cracking club cut with all the hallmarks of a filtered house classic in the making.
The infectious house grooves keep coming with 'Manali', with Cazal partnering up with Andrea Fiorito (Cynosure) for a no-nonsense, heads down, acidic basement moment. An urgent bassline bounces around the locked groove whilst choppy vocals, haunting synths and energetic percussion all hustle for prime position in this lively and effective track.

Progression..., like a spark shooting through fiber optic cable or a bullet train churning through the next tunnel, the acid-techno arrangements of Detroit-based DJ/producer Rebecca Goldberg have a velocity to them that's spurred by reverence for the roots of electronic and techno music conceived in her hometown, from the Belleville Three to 'the Godmother of House Music,' DJ Stacey 'Hotwaxx' Hale.

Palpable in the pulse of Goldberg's latest EP 313 Acid Queen is an urgent and inspired, cool and confident sense of picking up a proverbial torch, of propulsion along with preservation, of continuation as well as re-invention. Born vigorously forth upon the blooms and grooves of her synth scores for these five songs is the sharpest demonstration, yet, of her signature sound and vision.

313 Acid Queen reaches to and re-enlivens the traditions of Detroit techno with Roland's contemporary iterations of the 808, 909 and 303 drum machines, quintessential sonic characters utilized by the region & genre's seminal producers. The title refers, also, to the Detroit area's predominant telephone area-code, as she audibly reaches out to touch the essence of her city's distinct and dynamic neighborhoods and landscapes, most evidently with the field recordings from city streets and the animal populace inhabitants in the majestic Belle Isle Aquarium.

These kinetic, contemplative and coolly exhilarating tracks were conceived to carry on the tradition of Detroit acid techno in the contemporary world. Fittingly, Goldberg's first vinyl release comes on March 13t h (3/13), distributed internationally through Detroit Underground, a multidisciplinary arts collective & record label. Goldberg's fellow Detroit producer Ryan McCray has a deep sound and keen sensibility for acid techno all his own; he fell in love with the 313 Acid Queen track 'Aquarium' and remixed it to be an exclusive bonus track for the vinyl release.

finally repressed

Back in February 2013, shortly after their impressive first release as a label, Music Is Love launched a double VA entitled Lovebox: an 8 track double-vinyl release that included tracks from 8 talented up-and-coming producers on their roster. By innovatively previewing the producers in this way, the label laid the foundations for what listeners could expect for each artists' subsequent EPs. The artists who released on it were not hyped up flavours of the month, but rather emerging talents who sat perfectly with the label's musical ethos - quality and original underground house with a contemporary, dynamic feel. Since the VA, the label have gone from strength to strength and have firmly established themselves as one of the most brightest house labels around in the UK.

Just over a year later and following in the success of its predecessor, MIL return with their second VA and with that, a chance for listeners to hear the new additions they've acquired, in addition to some already known faces. Liam Geddes opens proceedings with Untitled. A deep sense of soul permeates the whole track as a rumbling baseline imbues the beat with an ever-present sense of groove that never lets the head stop nodding. Geddes has really fine tuned and matured his sound over the past year, and this track is further evidence of his quality as a producer. The subtle percussive rhythms, electronic bleeps and synth nuances give this track a natural flow, as Geddes conjures something altogether more hypnotic, dark and purposeful.
Mr.KS, one of the newcomers to the label, outlines his coolly crafted style with track (Music) Makes Me Stronger. Brittle drums and deep warped synths suck you in and out and shape the structure of the beat, while afflicted chord patterns combine with the hypnotic repetition of a vocal sample to give the track a gesture towards techno but with a flow that pulls in house elements. Cassio Kohl introducers himself with a warm, melodic house number; rumbling synths circulate in the background of the track while ticking hi-hats and snares play off against the sumptuous vocal sample, which builds and falls back nicely into its original path until electronic glitches sporadically ease in and move the beat forward.

Jamie Trench has been making some serious headway of late and his track I Want You with Rebel serves a timely reminder of a producer on top form. A heavy, rolling baseline resonates intently, building against murky vocal samples, shuffling snares and off-beat key stabs that grow in presence and intensity - a track that will no doubt prove a high point in any DJ set. Label boss Oli Furness has a raw knack for creating crisp, heavy sounds and Take Monday Off remains on a similar path, albeit the beauty lies in the subtlety of arrangements rather than bigger hitting sounds. Chopped shimmying keys tease, filter and build fluently with urgent hi-hats and swinging drums that flourish harmoniously together, while an understated baseline adds weight and rhythmic groove typically inherent in Furness' work.

Italian heavyweight Tuccillo has released on some of the most reputable labels on the circuit - releases for 20:20 Vision and Freerange is evidence enough of his provenance - and this time he brings his baleric house sound with the impeccable sounds of DubFlanged Gru. Shimmering percussion shakes meander against the bumping bassline while the endearing, muffled vocals that threaten to break out are superseded by breeze-block keys that filter and descend into a chattering groove. Dutch producer U Know The Drill brings things back into heavier house territory with a no-nonsense, stripped-back stomper, the type of track we've been used to hearing on Dutch affiliates New Jack City's material. Heavy snares kick with a punch, and the deep drone-like vocal swings against the wobbling baseline and tapestry of electronic bleeps. Other sampled vocals and glitches weave in with the juxtaposing elements playing off one another to huge effect, ensuring that sheer energy pervades the track.

Jackson Ryland rounds off the heavy 8 track VA - scattering hi-hats and swirling pads build, while the shuffling drums roll on until fleeting chord flourishes and a musky vocal hook bring the track into wistful nostalgia. The elements of track balance superbly and are propelled forward by the intricate drum arrangements and well-crafted hi-hat/vocal combo.
The difference in approach and outcome from each artist results in yet another highly impressive outcome, with 8 high grade tracks that show another side to Music Is Love. The sounds are tougher and the mood is darker, but the premise of the whole MIL concept remains more apparent than ever with this release: sourcing fresh underground talent, curating original electronic music and evolving artists already on the roster.

dotwav returns to their own KONFLKT imprint with Insanity. Both I/Y and Cadency aka Hector Oaks reshape the originals into individual sound concepts rounding off a complex four-track EP.

Heading straight towards peak time Insanity sets the pace. The raw yet punchy destination that follows on from a hypnotic synth exploration receives a deep tripped-out remix treatment from Berlin-based duo I/Y. Distance ventures into an emotive dimension that channels melancholy and anticipation into a compelling techno ballad. Charging the B-side with urgent heat, Cadency transforms dotwav's composition into a sustained power house for the floor.

Philippe Quenum returns to Cadenza Music with 'Solitaire', some thirteen years after helping kick start the Swiss label with the 2003 release 'Orange Mistake'/'Funky Dandy'. This groundbreaking single, co-produced with Luciano, has since become a landmark release, not just for the label, but also as the benchmark for the micro-house and minimal tech-house genre that developed over the decade. With a music career than spans back to the mid-80s (dancing in NYC as part of the breakdance troupe, The Magnificent Force), Quenum found his forte with house music, both as a DJ, and as a producer and label owner. Setting up the Access 58 label in 1998 as a platform for his music and collaborations, Quenum has consistently released over the years for labels like Crosstown Rebels, Soma, alphahouse, Thema and Trapez LTD. 'Solitaire' finds Quenum on fine form; on the lead track, dubby FX and bass shaking shots roll out over an urgent disco beat, muted brass and technoid stabs fire from all directions as the tension building pads flourish. Shadowy forces are at play on 'Mystic'; discordant sounds echo and bellow over reverberating percussion and a dense back beat that fire into life with shuffling hi-hats. Wrapping up this welcome return to the label is 'Mystery'; whipping snares and industrial clangs rumble over the urgent drums for more hypnotizing dancefloor work from Philippe!

Some believe that the environment in which you make music - from the studio space, to the location itself - has a profound effect on the creative process. Immerse yourself in the world around you, the theory goes, and it will shape the music you make. Listen to Gorthleck, the third album from veteran downtempo alchemists Benjamin Smith and Paul 'Mudd' Murphy, and you can almost visualize the craggy, windswept and breathtakingly beautiful environment in which it was made. Reconvening after a near seven-year hiatus last summer, the duo headed up to the Scottish Highlands to spend a week recording in the surrounds of Gorthleck House, nestled on the shore of Loch Mhor in Inverness-shire. Earlier this year, they returned to the same venue, with its' stunning views of the tranquil loch and rocky, wooded hills rising in the distance, to complete the nine-track set. Certainly, the immersive environment and famously changeable weather seems to have inspired the longtime friends and studio partners. The album's epic centrepiece, the nine-minute Mhor', sounds like an emotional love letter to the body of water they strolled alongside every day. Its' undulating synthesizer line - reminiscent of classic Tangerine Dream and the Orb's A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain' - mimics the slow ebb and flow of water across the loch, while Smith's shimmering guitar lines mimic the glint of sunlight reflecting off the surface. Elsewhere, the audio references are a little more subtle, but no less relevant. The hazy jazz guitars, twinkling pianos, rich grooves and fluttering clarinets of Nether' sound like the perfect accompaniment to a single malt whisky-fuelled sunset session at the water's edge, while the quietly foreboding aural textures, layered guitars and urgent electric violin of Enos' evoke memories of watching storm clouds gathering behind distant Highland mountains. The same could be said of Mr Coats' - a track arranged in steamy Mexico, and blessed with all the humidity you'd expect from such an excursion - while you can hear gale force winds whistling around the rafters on Dogwood'. As for Errogie', it's as bracing as a crystal clear morning in the Highlands, chilly, but hugely life affirming. The duo's previous two albums, 2007's Blue River and its' 2009 follow-up, Le Suivant, were both hugely evocative, but neither captured a distinct a sense of time and place quite like Gorthleck. Listen carefully, and you could almost be there with them, watching the sunrise and sunset.

Raime's second album, Tooth, arrives June 10, 2016 on 2xLP, CD and digital formats. The widescreen melancholia of their 2012 debut, Quarter Turns Over A Living Line, gives way to an urgent and focussed futurism, in the shape of eight fiercely uptempo, minimal, meticulously crafted electro-acoustic rhythm tracks. The DNA of dub-techno, garage/grime and post-hardcore rock music spliced into sleek and predatory new forms.

No let-up, no hesitation. Needlepoint guitar, deftly junglist drum programming, brooding synths and lethal sub-bass drive the engine. The production is immaculate, high definition. No hiss, no obscuring drones or extraneous noise: the music of Tooth is wide-open and exposed. The seeds of its supple dancehall biomechanics can be found in the self-titled 2013 EP by Raime side-project Moin, an ahead-of-its-time synthesis of art-rock and soundsystem sensibilities, but Tooth pushes the template further, binding the disparate elements together so tightly that they become indistinguishable from one another.

If Quarter Turns was an album that confronted total loss and self-destruction, even longed for it, then Tooth is the sound of resistance and counter-attack: cunning, quick, resolute, calling upon stealth as much as brute-force. At a time when so many pay lip service to experimentation without ever fully committing themselves or their work to it, Raime return from three years of deep, dedicated studio research with a bold and original new music: staunch, rude, and way out in front.

Completing a quick fire trio of new EPs, Constant Sound hits release number six with a pair of new tracks from VRSION that come with a dance floor friendly remix from Persuader. VRSION is a German producer who has already made a big impact with his release on Craig Richards' excellent The Nothing Special label. Following up that in fine style is the opener here, 'Torn', which is a hurried and urgent track that sits on the divide between house and techno. It is driven and slick, rubbery and hypnotic but has plenty of nuance and funk in its well programmed drums. Some occult sounds and wordless vocals embellished the whole thing and it really is the sort of track that blows dance floors apart and will stand out in any set. 'Capricorn Meet Leo' then toys with kinked drum patterns, rattling percussion and fathom deep bass that sucks you right into VRSION's world. It's a restless place where harmonies ride up and down the scale, cause claps come at you from odd angles and dark vocals add a sense of paranoia. Remixing this one is Persuader, who does so with a stripped back sense of restrain. he retains the original's weirdness, but layers in serene pads and tripped out atmospherics that really make it ripe for playing at 4am. This is the most adventurous release yet for Constant Sound, and is sure to prove one of its bets as a result.

Phoebe Killdeer & The Shift is the collaboration between newly Berliner Phoebe Killdeer (Nouvelle Vague, The Short Straws) with experimental musicians Thomas Mahmoud-Zahl (SFX, The Nest, Tannhäuser Sterben & das Tod, Von Spar) and Ole Wulfers (Kapaikos, Party Diktator), supported by actress and singer Maria de Medeiros (i. e. »The Saddest Music in the World«, »Pulp Fiction«).

»The Piano's Playing The Devils Tune« is »free music« in a most emphatic sense: The interplay between the abstract instrumentation on the one hand, equally recalling genres as diverse as noise rock, bass music and musique concre`te, as well as the intimate, concrete humanity of the sound on the other hand establishes a sprawling sonic space that gravitates around the haunting vocal passages of Killdeer and de Medeiros. »The Piano's Playing The Devils Tune« thereby succeeds in combining a decidedly experimental gesture with an urgent, uncanny familiarity and warmth; a precise sense of composition with an almost lavish casualness.

Phoebe Killdeer & The Shift do not resolve the numerous paradoxes that mark »The Piano's Playing The Devils Tune«: The result is an equally challenging and rewarding album that in fact — as played out as this predicate may be — truly defies categorization. Devils tunes.

Factory Benelux presents a new studio album by cult Manchester postpunk group Crispy Ambulance, issued in a
limited edition of 500 vinyl copies to mark Record Store Day 2015.
In many respects Compulsion is the second album Crispy Ambulance might have recorded in 1982 after the release of
The Plateau Phase, with six of the eight tracks written and performed live at that time. To these are now added Rain
Without Clouds, an outtake from The Plateau Phase newly restored from the original multitrack masters, and WMTP.2
with added synth lines by producer-cum fifth member Graham Massey, of 808 State and Biting Tongues.
Almost uniquely, Crispy Ambulance has retained the same line-up since the group was originally founded in 1978: Alan
Hempsall (vocals, keyboards), Gary Madeley (drums), Robert Davenport (guitars), Keith Darbyshire (bass).
'There's a sense of feeling compelled by irresistible forces,' explains Alan Hempsall. 'Compulsion is an apt way to
describe our constant urge to go back and make music with people we've known since childhood. While the world may
have changed, our music continues to be the product of the same influences - the passing of time, the changing of the
seasons, the content of our sleeping dreams, and the existence of space.'
Cover art by Peter Staessens. The package also features a free digital download of the album.
Praise for The Plateau Phase: "One of the best albums Britain's second city has unleashed" (Q, 03/2006); 'Perfect,
wonderful and with a compelling gravitational pull' (Record Collector, 03/2013); "17 years on The Plateau Phase
sounds like what it probably always was: urgent, postmodernist psychedelia with less debt to Joy Division's music than to
the universal abstract existential tension that comes with being young" (Uncut, 12/1999); "Cold and ferocious, but with
enough inventive melody to lighten the black abyss of the overall mood" (Les Inrockuptibles, 02/2012); "An enthralling
glimpse at a moment in musical history when the DIY ethos of punk gradually gave way to experiments with electronics
and song structures" (NME, 01/2000); "Mixes driving rock, gritty new wave and odd atmospheric stuff" (Option, 1990)

Long serving Cadenza recording artist, Mirko Loko, has always worn his Detroit musical influences on his sleeve, counting pioneer Carl Craig as his mentor, and having worked with the likes of Derrick May and Stacey Pullen in the studio.

And on Daybreak, Mirko fully indulges in the one genre that seems never to get tarnished, the mechanical and industrial beats working off the deep and soulful strings and melancholic pads, a true hallmark of the classic sounds of the Motor City. Originally released on Outpost Recordings, the label run by Scottish techno don, Funk D'Void, the masterful Original Mix from Takuya Yamashita gets three new versions from Mirko. Takuya, a techno artist from Kobe, Japan has already sparkled on labels like Biotech and Espai, and in his Original version we have a driving and energetic piece of classic techno. Mirko remains ever faithful to the melody and sounds of the original, providing a full beats re-rub on the 'Mn version', and an alternate 'Taiy version' that's more urgent, with its broken beat. The digital only 'Kanj no' version dispenses of a backbeat entirely, creating a remix that forever teases with it's percussive elements, building up great anticipation throughout. As Cadenza continues to celebrate its 10th year as a label, it takes delight in backing great music from its artists and associates, and this release is another curveball in the label's eclectic catalogue.

In the great tradition of Count Ossie, four new grounation furies — hypnotic, thunderous, urgent, mystical — with dubwise repeta, funde and bass drums embedding the Light Of Saba veteran's gorgeous trombone classicism.
The opener is a rocking kumina rhythm, with ring-the-alarm metal percussion and exhortatory brass; Free The People swirls some apocalyptic reasoning into the foggy, thumping mix. Universe In Crisis is another emergency call, chuffing headlong down the grooves... before the beautiful, anthemic Chant takes a step back from the fire, closing with a sense of thankful, spiritual reconciliation, the expert drumming and lyrical bone-work in full effect.

Next up in the Delsin house series is a man who's been perfecting it for years - Düsseldorf's Andy Vaz. The boss of Yore and Background Records, Vaz has released two full lengths and many EPs to date, always exploring a heartfelt brand of electronica that draws on house, techno, Detroit and Chicago in equal measure.

Here he serves up two versions of the same track - 'Don't Lose Your Mind'. Both feature the sweet vocal stylings of Niko Marks and the first, the Soul Version, is all ditty, bouncy chords, floating, summery saxophone lines and warm, effusive synths.

The second House Dub mix is a little sharper - the claps cut through the soupy sonics like a knife and as a result the groove has a more urgent bite. Still stuffed with plenty of human loveliness, though, both tracks are surely set for many spins this summer given their classy feel good vibes.